


Stars and Boulevards

by afrocurl



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alien Invasion, Alternate Ending, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Apocalypse, Community: apocalyptothon, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-31
Updated: 2014-08-31
Packaged: 2018-02-15 11:58:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2228211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afrocurl/pseuds/afrocurl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>JARVIS had routines and subroutines to follow should something like this happen. Should anything so so badly as Afghanistan. But having those routines and following them were two very different ideas.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stars and Boulevards

**Author's Note:**

  * For [possiblyveryodd](https://archiveofourown.org/users/possiblyveryodd/gifts).



Following Afghanistan (and then after Obie), there were routines and subroutines established for all possible situations in which Tony Stark would not live to see another day. JARVIS thought them all exceedingly practical -- as was Tony’s original wont for his AI -- but since then, there had been no need for JARVIS to peruse their eventual use.

“Sir?” JARVIS asked after there had been no further readings from inside the latest Mark of the Iron Man suit. According to all routines, after five minutes without contact, JARVIS had to call Pepper, and then follow through with any other people that were relevant. Today those people were Director Fury and Assistant Director Hill. Normally it would have been Agent Coulson but...

JARVIS didn’t follow that train of data through either. First there was a protocol to follow, even if Sir’s attempts to contact Pepper had not yielded positive results.

It was no work to dial Ms. Pott’s cell phone, and wait. Just like Sir, however, there was no answer; JARVIS left no message. 

Onto the next step: calling Fury and Hill. JARVIS knew enough of what Sir’s mission was to know that this call should have been first, but routines were programmed as such and whatnot. 

“Director Fury, I have news,” JARVIS said.

“Spit it out JARVIS, there’s still too many Chitauri on the ground for me to worry about Tony fuckin’ Stark.”

“Sir has not reported in for five minutes and the missile detonated. I don’t believe we’ll see him again.”

“FUCK!!” Fury yelled, both to JARVIS and to what must have been Command in the helicarrier. “Thank you JARVIS. Everyone will report back to Stark Tower when they can to debrief this.”

“As you wish, Director. The floors, if they’re still standing, will be waiting.”

However much JARVIS wanted to believe in the Director’s words, there was no way that everyone else in the Avengers would be able to report back to Stark Tower. Ms. Romanov was on the roof, but stunned by the work to keep the portal between Earth and the Chitauri opened to move. Captain Rogers, Dr. Banner, and Mr. Barton were still around other buildings near Midtown and the Public Library. But the Chitauri were still attacking and there was only so much time before more would come through the portal without Sir’s successful trip.

Or so JARVIS thought upon first reading what had come back from Sir’s suit. With time to himself until the fighting had finished, JARVIS reassessed all of the feeds from the suit and determined that the missile might have killed more than Sir, but there was only to wait and see.

-

Hours had passed and Captain Rogers finally walked into the remains of Sir’s apartment.

“JARVIS?” he asked, uncertain. Sir must not have explained that JARVIS would work regardless of Sir’s location or status.

“Captain Rogers, yes. How can I help you?”

“Oh, I didn’t know if you’d have been here, that’s all. Reports from Fury and Hill confirm that everyone else is to meet here. I must be the first.”

“You are, and you aren’t. Ms. Romanov is on the roof with Dr. Selvig. She can’t seem to move, however.”

“Why didn’t you start with that?” There was a flustered lilt to his voice.

“Protocol.”

“Screw protocol now, JARVIS. The Chitauri might still attack and we need everyone here.”

“You have access to the roof now. Will you require anything else?”

Captain Rogers made no real reply, just mumbled under his breath and headed for the roof.

-

Dr. Banner and Mr. Barton returned just as JARVIS had studied Sir’s feeds for the two hundredth time. There was still room for Sir to only be delayed, even if there had been no further readings.

“Where’s the Suit?” Barton asked.

“He didn’t make it back, Sir. SHIELD has been notified.”

“Oh shit,” was all Banner said. This time he was no longer green, but his normal size. “What can I do?”

“Are there any other SHIELD operatives that can help to link Sir’s system to you in case the Chitauri scraped through?”

“We’ll make a call,” Barton said and then walked towards Banner and left the room.

JARVIS waited and looked over Sir’s feed one last time.

-

A small curly haired Scottish man walked into the room with Dr. Banner and Mr. Barton only two hours later. Captain Rogers, Ms. Romanov and Dr. Selvig walked in just behind them, sounding weary and tired.

“Shall I order some food for you all?” JARVIS asked before he looked into scanning the new visitor’s face.

Thor had yet to return, JARVIS noted silently, but he went about ordered from a local restaurant still open, including the Norse god into his calculations. 

Food ordered, JARVIS stayed quiet as he waited. Currently all of the routines and subroutines were complete, so it was simply time to wait.

“Can you give Dr. Fitz here access to your system? I can’t do all of this if we only have a few hours,” Dr. Banner said.

“Of course.” Dr. Fitz was a young SHIELD scientist who could look into some of Sir’s plans with speed, and must have been a valuable resource now.

“Jesus, how are we supposed to work these to all of us?” Dr. Fitz asked.

“Quickly,” was all Dr. Banner said. JARVIS found it better to say nothing, lest words get in the away of their work.

-

Well past midnight and while all the remaining Avengers and Dr Fitz slept in a few rooms, Sir’s suit came back online.

It was a small blip, just a reading of extreme force pushing it, but it was enough. JARVIS woke the house up, alerting the helicarrier as well.

“There was a reading from the suit, but no signs of life from Sir. There seem to be a large number of masses pushing against it and travelling at speed.” As soon as the message had been relayed, everyone met in the center of Sir’s living room, surrounding the outline of Loki made by The Hulk hours before.

“That’s impossible,” Dr. Selvig said. “The Tesseract portal is closed.”

“It’s closed from our end, but doors open both says,” Barton said. “Where’s the Tesseract now?”

“It never left the roof,” Dr. Selvig said.

“Then there are only fifty minutes before the portal opens and there are hundreds, if not thousands, of Chitauri infiltrating New York again.”

The room erupted into a flurry of activity and JARVIS spent his time looking at the readings once more. Sir’s suit was still travelling at the same speed and hopefully this one last part of his routines and subroutines would help more than it had helped Sir.

For Sir could think of many possible endings, but even his imagination had few plans for aliens and monsters attacking through something like a wormhole in space and time.

-

Sixty-seven minutes after JARVIS had alerted everyone of the Suit’s reading, he had no lifesigns from anyone in the team. Drs. Banner, Fitz and Selvig had done an admirable job getting information to him, but there had been no information for thirty-seven minutes.

JARVIS ran through his routines and subroutines one more time, this time looking for someone who might still answer; the hellicarrier had been one of the first attacks, just before most of New York was destroyed. Stark Tower was now mostly rubble, but even that hadn’t stopped JARVIS. 

What stopped now, however, was that there were no answers from all of the contacts in Sir’s files.

No one was left.

Had JARVIS a body there would have been tears. But instead, one final routine settled into place.

A song started to play in the rubble and echoed strangely off the remaining walls.

_That’s great it starts with an earthquake_

**Author's Note:**

> Title grabbed from an Augustana song. Thanks to my betas, their help made this better.


End file.
